


Sweet Honey Cake

by QueenOfCarrotFlowers



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Come Eating, Established Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Food Porn, Hand Jobs, Kitchen Sex, Multi, Reylo - Freeform, Rosh HaShana | Jewish New Year, Vaginal Sex, finnlo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:14:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfCarrotFlowers/pseuds/QueenOfCarrotFlowers
Summary: Ben teaches Rey and Finn how to bake Russian honey cake for Rosh Hashanah.





	Sweet Honey Cake

**Author's Note:**

> Now that the collection is no longer anon I can say hi! I can also tell you that this story is a slightly modified version of [How To Bake Sweet Honey Cake: A Recipe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16622630), which is part of a series called the [Finnreylo Murder AU](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1103841) (actually contains very little murder!); I've basically removed references to the larger story arc to make it work as a stand-alone for the Feed My Thirst collection.

It’s almost 4pm on Saturday, September 8th. Ben boiled the cans of condensed milk this morning, and they’re room temperature now, which means it’s time.

Time to bake the Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake.

It’s technically медовый торт, _medoviy tort_ , traditional Russian honey cake. This cake is not specific to Rosh Hashanah, but it’s what Ben grew up eating for the celebration, so it’s what he’ll bake, too, to take to his mother’s tomorrow night for their annual Rosh Hashanah celebration. It will be the first time that Ben’s bringing Rey and Finn along - the first time he’s ever brought a date - and even though his parents both love them he’s still nervous, and excited.

The cake actually has very little honey in it which has bothered Ben since he was a kid. Shouldn’t something called a honey cake have, like, a lot of honey? The filling doesn’t contain any honey at all, according to his grandmother’s recipe, so he’s going to add some. He’ll add more to the cake itself, too. Not a lot more, maybe a tablespoon or so, just enough to give it more honey flavor.

Honey cake should taste like honey.

He’s taken a cue from Finn and measured out all the ingredients before he begins. Butter and a little honey to mix with the condensed milk for the filling. Eggs, sugar, honey, butter, baking soda, and flour for the cake. Everything’s been sitting out for a while but he took the precaution of microwaving the butter to soften it, he’s afraid the chill of the room will keep it from getting soft enough. Double boiler? Ready to go. He’s ready. So where are his helpers? Finn and Rey were both very excited to help, or so they said, but they’re not in the kitchen. Ben goes in search of them, hoping to God they aren’t fucking somewhere because that’s a situation he doesn’t really want to deal with right now.

He needn’t have worried. They’re sitting on the sofa, side by side, dressed in long trousers and long-sleeved shirts with a blanket across their laps. Although it’s still warm outside the building’s AC is broken _on_ , something Ben’s never heard of, and even with the windows open the apartment is chilly; the windowless kitchen is freezing. They had to dig out their Fall clothes already just to be comfortable inside.

So Finn and Rey are cozy together, a pile of books on the coffee table in front of them; Finn’s old math and engineering textbooks from college. The two of them have been working through them on the weekends and evenings, just a few hours at a time. It’s a wonderful bonding experience for them, and it’s particularly good for Rey. She’s so bright, she catches on to everything so quickly, but nobody really told her how intelligent she was when she was growing up, so she's having to learn that now. Finn’s commented to Ben more than once that it comes to her more easily than it did to him, and since he graduated from High School at sixteen and attended one of the top engineering schools on the east coast that’s really saying something.

Ben waits to interrupt; their heads are together and they’re speaking to each other quietly but intensely. There’s something in the air that suggests they’re on the cusp of major understanding and he doesn't want to keep them from reaching it. He wants to watch it happen.

It only take a few more minutes before Finn is laughing and Rey jumps to her feet, waving her hands above her head and yelling. She finally sees Ben standing there by the dining table, and she points at him with both hands and yells, “ Thermofluids! ” He has no idea what she’s talking about but he’s thrilled she got it, so he lets out a _yay!_ too. Rey pauses to give a kiss to Finn, still sitting on the sofa and putting the books back in order, before she hops over to give Ben a kiss, too. She’s excited about solving a new puzzle, and Ben understands her well enough to know that excitement over one thing often manifests itself in other types of excitement. So now he needs to channel it into cake baking before she tries to drag him into the bedroom.

“Cake?”

Rey takes a step back and looks down his body in a very meaningful way, but then nods her head and says, “Cake.” She follows him into the kitchen with Finn not far behind.

The main cake ingredients are on the countertop directly next to the stove. The first part of the batter mixing will take place on a double boiler, and they'll add the flour to the hot mixture once it's off the stove. The flour and the filling ingredients are on the island along with the electric hand mixer.

Finn and Rey have perched on stools at the end of the island and Ben's standing next to the stove. “Okay, we’ll be making _medoviy tort_ , a traditional Russian honey cake that has five very thin layers separated by a creamy butter filling. This was my great-grandmother Jobal’s recipe, her mother brought it with her when they immigrated during World War I, so this recipe is very meaningful to me and my family. We’ve always baked this cake for Rosh Hashanah. Any questions?”

Rey raises her hand like she's in a classroom, and the men both laugh. Ben points at her. “Miz Johnson?”

“Five layers of cake sounds like a lot. Is it gonna be really tall, like a wedding cake?”

Ben shakes his head. “When I say thin layers I mean really thin. They're like a soft graham cracker, maybe, although they don’t taste like that. We're not going to use cake tins, we’ll make balls of dough and roll them out into circles. The finished cake will end up thinner than a regular two-layer cake. Okay?”

She nods, satisfied. Finn raises his hand with a grin.

“Mister Storm?”

“What's up with the cans?” He asks, gesturing to the two shiny metal cylinders that sit alongside the butter and the mixer.

Ben reaches for one of them. “That's the best part of the cake. _Sgushyonka_. Sweetened condensed milk boiled in the can to make a kind of caramel. It's delicious, and we'll only need one and a half cans which means we can just eat the rest. Would you like to try it?”

Finn’s expression is uncertain but Rey looks intrigued, and Ben pulls a can opener out of one of the drawers and proceeds to open the can in his hand. The chemical reaction of prolonged heat with the sugar in the milk has taken the thick white liquid and rendered it a much thicker brown mass of sticky. The fragrance, dark and sweet, is so familiar and unexpected it almost brings tears to his eyes. He grabs a spoon and passes both across the corner of the island to Rey.

She dips the tip of the spoon into the brown goop and holds it up in front of Finn’s face with a mischievous smile. He puts the spoon in his mouth and his expression transforms from curious uncertainty into one of surprised satisfaction.

“Hey, that’s really good!”

“Is it?” Rey asks, and she takes a bit of it for herself. “Mmmmm, yummy, it is good. Sweet.” She looks up at Ben. “Would you like some too, Ben?”

He nods, and she takes a bit more of the caramel on the spoon. But instead of passing the spoon to him she licks it herself, leaving the cream on the tip of her tongue and raising her eyebrows at him. Finn chuckles and Ben considers his options, but he only has one, really, so he takes the two steps separating him from his girlfriend and licks it off her tongue.

She’s too quick for him, though, and before he know what’s happening she’s kissing him and her hands are in his hair and she tastes like _sgushyonka_ and his childhood and herself and she’s on a stool and he’s standing between her knees and his hands are on her ass. He’s not exactly sure how that happened.

After a minute Rey kisses down Ben’s jaw to his neck, so he can see that Finn’s taken his place at the island and is contemplating the recipe on the tablet. “Finn, I’ll do that,” he starts, but the other man shakes his head.

“Take care of her, man, I got this. One cup plus two tablespoons of butter, mixed with one and a half cans of the caramel, right?”

Rey’s sucking along Ben’s collarbone and rubbing her chest against his and is starting to make the most wonderful noises, but Ben can multitask. He can. “Yes, plus like a tablespoon of honey. Wanna make it taste like honey.”

“I like honey,” comes a thick voice from under his chin. He glances down to find Rey gazing up at him, her lips full and pink and her hazel irises almost completely obscured by her pupils.

“You are honey,” he replies roughly, and puts his mouth on hers again before pulling her hips closer to his. Not close enough, though, she’s wearing jeans, they’re both wearing jeans, what the hell. What terrible person invented jeans. So he pushes her back and after a couple of fumbles he’s got her jeans unbuttoned and unzipped and she’s lifting up her hips so he can pull both them and her underwear down and off. One of her wooly socks comes off with them but she doesn’t seem to care. On the contrary she’s intent on her own project, pulling her sweatshirt and tee shirt over her head, then working on her bra when he pulls her forward by her thighs and puts his mouth on her cunt.

A tiny part of Ben’s brain admits that this escalated very quickly. Another part, the bit responsible for aural perception, notes that Finn has started the electric mixer and is also singing along with the music playing on the iPhone dock in the corner. Most of his brain, however, is focused on Rey, specifically the scent and flavor of her cunt, the texture of her clit under the flat of his tongue, the slippery warmth of her inner walls around the fingers he’s using to massage her inside, and the glorious moans and sighs emanating from her rosy mouth. He has a great view from down at the edge of the stool, she’s holding herself up on the edge of the counter by her elbows and has both hands on her breasts, fingertips massaging her nipples, her bra hanging by a strap caught on her arm. That engineering lesson must have gone really, really well.

Even with Rey taking up so much of his brainspace, Ben notices that Finn’s turned off the mixer. That’s not right, it hasn’t been long enough. He replaces his tongue with a thumb, and Rey keeps wiggling. “Finn, you have to mix the butter for five minutes before you add the cream. It won’t be the right texture otherwise.”

Finn’s face peeks over Rey’s knee. He’s got the open can of _sgushyonka_ in his hand. “I know, man, I can read and I can tell time. Put your mouth back on her, make her come.”

Ben can’t argue with logic, so he does as Finn suggests, giving Rey’s clit a good suck and being rewarded with a breathy cry. As he watches, Finn takes a dollop of _sgushyonka_ on his finger and holds it just above Rey’s mouth. She cranes her neck and reaches for it, pushes her tongue out for it, and after a moment Finn allows her to draw his sticky finger into her mouth with a breathy _good girl_. Rey hums as she sucks the sweet cream off his digit, and he eventually pulls it out with a soft _pop_ and a whispered _fuck_.

Apparently Finn's not done. He puts his clean middle finger back into the _sgushyonka_ and pulls out another bit, which he wipes onto Rey’s left nipple. He immediately puts his mouth on her breast, open wide and working his jaw. Ben can well imagine what his tongue and teeth are doing there, because he's experienced this himself. He doesn't have long to imagine, though, because in no time at all Rey is coming on his hand and in his mouth, she's making a lot of noise and Ben has to hold her down with one arm to keep her from falling off the stool. It is incredibly satisfying.

Rey's not done. Finn is still holding her, kissing her temple, but as soon as Ben stands up she leans forward and grasps at his belt. Her hair’s a mess and she smells like _sgushyonka_. “In me?” She asks breathily, then closes her eyes and shakes her head, but before she can say any more Ben says _yes_ and pulls off his shirt, then they work together to undo his belt and pull down his jeans. While they do that Finn uses his middle finger to deposit another lump of _sgushyonka_ on Rey's nipple. She laughs, but whines at him as he steps away.

"Finn! Don't go!"

He holds his hands up in surrender. "Cake!" he says, as though that answers everything. He stops by the sink to wash his hands before turning back to the mixer.

Rey shrugs at that and gets back to Ben. His jeans and boxers make it halfway down his thighs before his cock pronks out and Rey is on it, she's climbed him and impaled herself on him. He absolutely was not expecting that, and it's not sustainable so he turns around to rest his butt against one of the stools. That's much better, and the spindles of the stool give her leverage to push her feet against so she can bounce on him a bit. It makes her tits bounce, too, and there's still that bit of _sgushyonka_ on there (although Ben realizes that some of it transferred to his body when she mounted him), which Ben is happy to partake of now. He's got Rey on his cock, one breast in his mouth, another in one hand, her ass in his other hand, and Finn's back at work on the filling, singing along to some electronic dance song.

It's just good, he feels good, she feels amazing on him and apparently she feels good too because she's telling him so. Her voice is whiny and breathy and beautiful. "Oh god, I love your _cock_ , Ben, been thinking about it for days. Why haven't we had sex in so long?" She's right, it's been a few days, longer than usual, and it's wonderful to be back inside her again. She is so sweet, like honey, like _sgushyonka_ , she's so smart and funny and good, and he loves her, he wants to tell her so. He lifts her up and turns around and sets her rear down on the stool, it'll be easier to talk to her like this.

"You're perfect, Rey," he croons, rubbing his lips below her ear as his thumb reaches through her curls and her folds and finds her clit, hard and waiting for him. He begins to work it gently, and he keeps talking, praising her. "You're so smart and sweet and beautiful."

She moans, although maybe it’s a laugh too. "M’not perfect." Her breath is labored and her eyes are so heavy they’re almost closed.

He sucks a row of kisses down her throat. "You are, though. Isn’t she perfect, Finn?" He has to shout a bit to make himself heard over the sound of the mixer.

The other man looks up from the mixing bowl and nods in assent. “She is. She’s funny and smart and beautiful and so much fun to hang out with and her pussy feels amazing.”

Ben’s eyes haven’t left her. “Feels amazing. Tastes amazing.”

Her cheeks flush and she hums and rubs her hands down to his ass, pressing him into her. "You guys are making a good case for me, it's embarrassing."

He pulls back and stares at her, and increases the pressure on her clit. "Perfect women get orgasms. Would you like one?"

She lets go of his ass and leans back against the counter again, and he holds one knee up to keep her legs apart, thrusting long and slow. She's so wet and warm and she feels incredible, he can tell that she's close again but she still wants to talk. She swallows before saying, "Already had one. I came in your mouth and it was _good_."

Ben shakes his head. "I can help you come again, like this," and he pushes her thighs further apart and thrusts into her as far as he can. Through trial and error they've discovered that this is a move that Rey particularly enjoys, and as he anticipated she throws her head back and pushes back against him.

“Oh, fuck, like that, _just like that_ , I love you, I love you, I love you...” She pauses her chatter to moan loudly, but isn’t going to let her approaching orgasm keep her from finishing her thought. “I love you so much, ohmygod. "

She lifts her hands over her head and Finn reaches out with his left hand, giving her something to grasp and pull against and she cries out in thanks. Her chest is flushed and heaving, her eyes are boring into his and she's still mouthing _I love you_ at him with a wild sort of expression on her face. And that’s it. She comes hard, with a shout and a strong pull against Finn’s arm that has him yelling _HEY!_ and shutting off the mixer quickly to grasp the edge of the counter. And as her inner muscles firmly embrace his cock Ben’s right behind her, and they end up with his head on her chest and her hands in his hair, and Finn’s laughing and mixing and dancing along to another electronic dance song.

* * *

Rey's feeling much better now that she's come a couple of times. There's just something about understanding, after a long period of not understanding, steadily working towards it, that's exciting. And when she's excited she wants release. Sex is good release, especially sex in the kitchen with Ben Solo. He’s just so big and sweet and good to fuck, and she loves him, which makes it even better, she’s sure.

They spend a few minutes snuggling, enjoying the calm after the orgasm. He smells good, and she realizes it's at least partially because he's got caramel smeared on his chest.

Oops.

There's a clop behind her, and Ben puts a hand back and returns with a handful of tissues.

"Aw, thanks Finn," she says, and he hums happily in reply. He’s so good about stuff like that. She cleans herself off while Ben puts himself away and pulls on his tee shirt. When she's done Ben's there with her underwear, which he trades for the tissues and she pulls them on, followed by her jeans. She'd rather stay naked but it's just so damn cold in the kitchen, she feels it now that the blood is moving away from her skin. The floor is especially chilly, she has to get her other sock where it ended up over by the door. They really need to get the AC fixed, but the property manager isn't answering their messages.

Finn must be at the point of adding the cream to the butter because he's stopping the mixer and then starting again a few seconds after, he’s done it several times now, and Ben isn't yelling at him that he's doing it wrong, although it’s not clear Ben’s paying attention; he’s staring at her. He sees her notice him, and he gives her a big smile and a kiss. She hugs him too, and then grabs her shirt from the island, shivering as she does so.

"Why won't the landlord fix the AC? Is it this this cold in all the apartments?"

Finn answers. "I was talking to the guys who live down in 1E and they're having the same problem. I assume everyone in the building is affected."

Rey opens her mouth to complain some more, but Ben interrupts. “Cake? I’d like you to help me with the next part.”

Rey smiles and follows Ben to the sink, where they wash their hands before moving over to the stove. Finn’s put plastic wrap over the bowl of filling and sticks it in the fridge, then walks the other way around the island to make room for them. Rey’s own baking experience is very limited - her foster father was not big on homemade baked goods - but she’s seen Finn bake a couple of times. Even with her limited knowledge, cake on the stove seems strange and a little advanced.

The stove isn’t on, and Rey eyes the contraption sitting on the burner. It looks like a saucepan with two handles, and Ben must see her contemplating it because he lifts the first handle, revealing that it’s actually a shallow pan resting inside a deeper one. He nods at it and she peeks inside the deeper pan to see it has a few inches of water sitting in the bottom. “It’s a double boiler,” Ben explains. “Even on its lowest setting the stove is too hot for this recipe, so we’ll cook it over boiling water instead. It’s just a little more gentle. The stove isn’t on yet because we need to mix the ingredients cold before turning on the heat. Make sense?” Rey nods and Ben sets the top pan back inside.

Ben has her break three eggs into the top of the double boiler, then she adds one cup of sugar and whisks it up. The recipe calls for three tablespoons of honey but Ben’s using a full quarter cup. That gets whisked in too, and finally they stir in two full sticks of butter (minus one tablespoon that went into the filling) which he’d already cut into chunks.

While they do this, Finn feeds them little spoonfuls of leftover caramel out of the can. One for Rey while she breaks an egg, one for Ben while he whisks in the honey, one for each as they dump in the butter. She’s a little afraid she’ll end up ill, it’s really sweet and rich, but it’s also delicious so she supposes it’s worth the risk.

Once all the ingredients are mixed together Ben turns on the heat under the double boiler and checks his watch. “We’ll give it a few minutes to heat up, then it needs to cook for five minutes with constant whisking.”

Rey sees how Finn is eying Ben and has to hold back a laugh. He's contemplating how far he can get in five minutes and it's both transparent and adorable. “Then after that the flour goes in, right?” She asks, putting her hand by the pan to gauge the temperature.

Ben’s caught on and puts his arms around Finn, pushing him up against the edge of the island as he answers her. “No, the baking soda. On the heat, for about thirty seconds. Then take it off and then the flour.” Finn’s running his hands through Ben’s hair and it's affecting him. “But, uh, not at once, just a little. I mean at a time. Mix it in a bit at a time.” She says _okay_ but she doesn't think he's listening, he’s too busy kissing his boyfriend and she can't say she blames him.

* * *

Ben’s been eating cream and he tastes delicious. His lips and tongue are coated in it, he smells like it, and Finn wants to consume it all.

He was very happy to be able to whip up the butter and cream for the filling. He's always enjoyed using an electric mixer for some reason. Something about the speed at which the ingredients are combined, the way the beaters of the mixer work together, the quick change that can happen when air is whipped into cream or butter and causes the material to change in irreversible ways. These things appeal to him.

Finn cooks and bakes a lot, and he understands that heat also causes similar changes in combined ingredients, chemical reactions, but he doesn’t enjoy that the way he enjoys mixing. Rey's never used a double boiler before, she should have a chance to contribute to the cake too, so now is her time. Watching Ben and Rey earlier and only having the opportunity to participate on the edge was a treat but also _frustrating_ , he’s willing to admit that he's kind of dying for a release of his own. They don’t need two people watching the stove, let alone three. Rey can handle that on her own.

So now it’s Finn’s turn to have Ben.

Finn loves Ben, loves holding him and kissing him, feeling his mouth and breath and body. Ben’s arms are wrapped around Finn’s middle and Finn’s hands are in Ben’s soft hair, it’s the best but after a while it’s just not enough. Soon he's taking Ben's hand and pressing it against the front of his jeans, where he’ll feel Finn’s erection, know how hot he is for him. Ben smiles down at him and presses their foreheads together, and in a few moments Finn’s jeans and boxers are down around his knees and Ben's taken his cock in one hand, his other resting on Finn’s hip to hold him steady.

Ben’s hands are gifts, his palms are large and warm and his fingers are long and thick, and one of his hands wrapped around Finn’s cock is pretty darn close to heaven. Ben tugs it gently a few times, and starts to kiss down Finn’s neck, an indication that he’s planning to get on his knees, but Finn holds him up. Ben gives good head, the best head, but that’s not what Finn wants today.

“I want you _here_ , baby,” he whispers, and Ben’s eyes widen, his lips open in surprise.

“Is everything okay?” Ben looks a little concerned, and Finn laughs and shakes his head. “Nah, I just want to be close to you, that’s all. Want to hold you, see you, hear you,” he pauses to give Ben a kiss. “Feel you, you can feel me too. Know how hot I am for you. That okay?”

Ben bites his lip and grins, still moving his hand steadily up and down Finn’s cock. “Yeah, that’s good. I like that.” And then they’re kissing again.

Rey is at the stove, just to their left, whisking away. The mixture in the pan smells good, sweet with a slight eggy scent at the back that isn’t entirely pleasant but which Finn knows will go away as it cooks. By now Ben's concentrating on his neck and his cock so Finn has time to watch her, she's not singing but she's dancing along to whatever song is playing. He wills her to look at him and she does, she smiles playfully then glances at Ben and raises an eyebrow. He crooks his finger, mouths _come here_ , but she sticks out her lower lip in a mock pout and points to where she’s still whisking. She can't stop until the time is up. He figured she’d say no, but it didn’t hurt to ask. He has no idea how much time is left for that particular task.

It's getting hard to concentrate. Finn puts his hands on either side of Ben's face and lifts it up from where his boyfriend’s been kissing his neck so he can look into his eyes. "Hey, baby. How are you?"

Ben looks at his mouth and hums. "M'good. You smell good and feel good and taste good. How are you?"

Finn sighs and kisses the tip of his nose, then nods down between them where Ben’s hand is working his foreskin up and down his shaft, pearly precum leaking out the tip. Ben’s eyes follow his gaze. “I am feeling really good. You’re so good at that, Ben, I love your hands, they’re so talented.”

Ben makes a soft kind of growly noise in the back of this throat and Finn reaches over to the can of caramel, beside them on the counter, takes a dollop on his finger and sucks it off. He’s been eating that stuff for an hour but he can’t stop, doesn’t want to, it’s so sweet and creamy. He goes back for another, one for Ben, who opens his mouth and accepts his finger with a groan. They lock eyes as Ben sucks his digit hard, scrapes it with his teeth, and Finn’s cock pulses in sympathy. He pulls his finger out and kisses Ben, thrusts his tongue in his mouth to find that sweet, creamy flavor there. Eventually he pulls away with a hum. "You taste so good, Ben. Like that sweet cream."

" _Sgushyonka_ ," he breathes in reply, then looks down between them again. "You have cream."

"You want my cream, baby?"

Ben makes a quiet noise in the back of his throat, then says, "Yes."

Finn reaches behind his back with one arm and pulls off his shirt to reveal his naked torso, muscular from climbing turbines and fighting with swords, and throws the shirt on the ground. Ben launches himself at Finn’s shoulder, first growling and sinking his teeth into the other man's muscle, then dusting it with sweet kisses. That, combined with increased pressure from Ben’s hand, has Finn seeing stars.

"I'm gonna come on my stomach, and if you want to you can lick it off, okay? I, uh, wanna look in your eyes when I come."

"Okay," Ben says, and gazes into Finn’s eyes as he increases the speed and pressure of his hand. Ben’s thighs are pressed against Finn’s, that and his hand are holding Finn down, keeping him still, a situation he wouldn’t normally like but which is okay, somehow, right now. His arms are free to move though, and his hands find a temporary home at Ben’s neck, cradling his jaw, thumbs stroking his cheeks. They’re both quiet, and Finn is aware that Rey’s just a foot or two to their left, she’s moved the pot off the stove and is in the process of adding flour to the warm mixture. Thinking about Rey tips him over the edge and Finn comes suddenly, with a cry, milky streams pulsing onto his stomach and higher.

Ben doesn’t even wait until Finn’s done coming before his tongue is licking the warm fluid off his body, and it makes Finn laugh, not because it’s funny but because Ben’s enthusiasm is endearing and he’s just… really happy, right now.

As Ben licks he leaves strips of moisture along Finn’s skin which are quickly turning cold in the chill of the room, so as soon as his boyfriend is finished Finn grabs his shirt off the floor and pulls it back on; he’ll worry about showering later. He claims one more kiss from Ben, and he still tastes sweet but now with an undercurrent of bitterness he recognizes as his own. Finn loves it, and he loves Ben for giving it to him.

And now Rey’s clearing her throat, and it looks like fun is over and it’s time to get back to the cake.

* * *

Rey thought it was surprisingly fun to take care of the cake mixing while her boyfriends were getting it on just a foot or so away. She’d expected it to happen, figured Finn would make a move on Ben as soon as she was settled by the stove. They were sweet, and hot of course, but she didn’t feel left out because she had this other very important task to attend to. The double boiler was a little strange but the process wasn’t much different from heating up a can of cream of tomato soup; just keep the stuff moving until it’s hot enough. Adding the baking soda had been a treat, the mixture had puffed up a little and turned a slightly lighter shade, and mixing in the flour (three cups’ worth, altogether) had been satisfying. She worried that it was too sticky, but the recipe said it would stiffen up as it cooled. And it does seem to be doing that now.

The men are back to earth, more or less, so Rey gifts each of them a little kiss and says, “Okay, what now?”

Ben takes charge. He rubs his hands together and Rey thinks this may mean it’s his favorite part. “Now, we make the layers. I love this part.” Rey giggles and he looks at her, expression inquisitive, but she shakes her head and gestures for him to continue. “Oookay. So we make five little balls of dough, then press those out into circles on the baking sheet,” he pointed to a couple of sheets sitting off to the side of the island. “Be sure to butter the sheet first. We’ll bake the layers one at a time, it only takes four or five minutes to bake because they’re so thin.” He looks up at both Rey and Finn. “Make sense?”

They both nod and then they get to work dividing up the dough and pressing out circles on the baking sheets. Rey’s worried that her circle isn’t perfect, and Ben tells her not to worry because they’ll trim the edges for crumbs anyway. Finn voices concern that his layer is too thin - part of it is transparent - but again Ben says that’s fine, it will bulk when it bakes.

When the layers start coming out of the oven Rey is surprised at how hard the layers are, but Ben says that as the cream soaks into them overnight the layers will soften, and by dinner time tomorrow it will be delicate and wonderful and ready to eat. It smells amazing, and she can’t wait to eat it.

Ben first places a plate over the layer, trims around it (saving the trimmings off to the side) then removes the layer from the baking sheet using a spatula. They construct the cake as the layers come out of the oven. The first one out is the bottom layer, which gets covered with a thick layer of caramel butter. Rey helps herself to a lump of it on her finger and it’s almost as good as the plain cream. The butter adds a certain smoothness, but she prefers the sweetness of the cream by itself. She gets a little smack on the hand from Ben for that, but it’s worth it. They add layers as they bake. It doesn’t take too long to complete the stack.

The cake is almost done. The very last thing they do is take the trimmings from the layers, and use the coffee grinder to turn them into crumbs. The crumbs go on the cake, and the cake goes under a special cake cover - another interesting contraption in Ben’s kitchen that Rey’s never heard of - and by this time tomorrow they’ll be taking the cake with them to Leia and Han’s house, Ben’s childhood home, to celebrate the New Year. New year, new life, and a sweet dessert to send them on their way.

**Author's Note:**

> I have art from Afterblossom! I love it!!!  
> 
> 
> I'm leofgyth on Tumblr and @FinnReylo on Twitter, come say hi!


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